View source for Criticism of Mormonism/Books/American Massacre/Chapter 8

{{FairMormon}}  
{{H1
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/American Massacre/Chapter 8
|H=Response to claims made in "Chapter 8: Deseret, August 3, 1857"
|S=
|L1=
|T=[[../../|American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows]]
|A=Sally Denton
|<=[[../Chapter 7|Chapter 7]]
|>=[[../Chapter 9|Chapter 9]]
}}
[[File:Chart AM chapter 8.png|center|frame]]
<onlyinclude>
{{H2
|L=Criticism of Mormonism/Books/American Massacre/Chapter 8
|H=Response to claims made in American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, "Chapter 8: Deseret, August 3, 1857"
|S=
|L1=Response to claim: 104 - Deaths in the handcart companies caused "most Salt Lake Mormons" to lay the blame "squarely at Young's feet"
|L2=Response to claim: 105 - The book discusses the "Mormon Reformation"
|L3=Response to claim: 105 - The author claims that Brigham said that "all backsliders should be 'hewn down'"
|L4=Response to claim: 105 - A list of thirteen questions was "conceived by Young and expanded by Grant"
|L5=Response to claim: 106 - Blood atonement
|L6=Response to claim: 106 - The author claims that "those who dared to flee Zion were hunted down and killed"
|L7=Response to claim: 106 - The killing of William R. Parrish, "an elderly Mormon in high standing"
|L8=Response to claim: 106 - Castration of a man by Bishop Warren Snow who was "engaged to a woman Snow wanted to take for a plural wife"
|L9=Response to claim: 106 - The author claims that the "bloody regime…ended with" Jedediah "Grant's sudden death, on December 1, 1856"
|L10=Response to claim: 108 - Surveyor General David Burr "fled for his life"
|L11=Response to claim: 110-112 - It is claimed that Parley P. Pratt was killed because he married Elenore McLean when she was not divorced from her husband
|L12=Response to claim: 112-113 - In Brigham's speech on July 24, 1857, he said that "This American Continent will be Zion..."
|L13=Response to claim: 115 - The author claims that "Indian" massacres that occurred in Utah Territory were actually carried out by "white-faced Indians who used Mormon slang"
|L14=Response to claim: 115 - Brigham instructed the people to "hoard their grain" and not sell to any gentiles
|L15=Response to claim: 120 - The author claims that "it seem most likely that" Charles "Rich advised the Fancher train to take the Southern Trail"
|L16=Response to claim: 121 - Will Bagley claims that "all information about the emigrants' conduct came from men involved in their murder or cover-up"
}}
</onlyinclude>

==Response to claim: 104 - Deaths in the handcart companies caused "most Salt Lake Mormons" to lay the blame "squarely at Young's feet"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=
According to the author, deaths in the handcart companies caused "most Salt Lake Mormons" to lay the blame "squarely at Young's feet."		
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|The author has no evidence to support this claim.}}

==Response to claim: 105 - The book discusses the "Mormon Reformation"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre|claim=
The book discusses the "Mormon Reformation."
|authorsources=<br>
# N/A
}}
{{information}}
*{{Detail|Mormon Reformation}}

==Response to claim: 105 - The author claims that Brigham said that "all backsliders should be 'hewn down'"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=
The author claims that Brigham said that "all backsliders should be 'hewn down'".		
|authorsources=<br>
#Josiah F. Gibbs, 'The Mountain Meadows Massacre, 8ff
}}
{{misinformation|Nobody was ever killed for rejecting Mormonism.}}
{{:Question: Was "not receiving the Gospel" a crime that was "worthy of death" among 19th century Mormons?}}

==Response to claim: 105 - A list of thirteen questions was "conceived by Young and expanded by Grant"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=
A list of thirteen questions was "conceived by Young and expanded by Grant."		
|authorsources=<br>
#Gustive O. Larson, "The Mormon Reformation," ''Utah Historical Society Quarterly'' 26 (January 1958).
*Hirshson, 155
*{{CriticalWork:Bigler:Forgotten Kingdom|pages=127}}.
}}
{{information|This list of questions sounds very much like a temple recommend interview today. A number of the same questions are still asked.}}
*{{CrossRef:Abanes:One Nation|chapter=11|pages=234, 560n43}}. {{Abanes:One Nation:Mormon Reformation}}.

==Response to claim: 106 - Blood atonement==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=
Blood atonement	
|authorsources=<br>
#}}
{{information}}
{{:Question: What is "blood atonement"?}}

==Response to claim: 106 - The author claims that "those who dared to flee Zion were hunted down and killed"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=
The author claims that "those who dared to flee Zion were hunted down and killed."		
|authorsources=<br>
#Cannon and Knapp, 268.
}}
{{propaganda|This is nonsense, and there is no evidence that this actually happened. This also contradicts what the author said on page 59, where she claims that Brigham said that anyone was "free to leave."}}

==Response to claim: 106 - The killing of William R. Parrish, "an elderly Mormon in high standing"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=
The killing of William R. Parrish, "an elderly Mormon in high standing."		
|authorsources=<br>
#Cannon and Knapp, 268.
}}
{{information}}
{{information|No guilty parties were ever found.}}
*{{CrossRef:Abanes:One Nation|chapter=11|pages=238, 562n60 (PB)}}
{{:Question: Were William Parrish and his son murdered as they attempted to leave Utah because leaving Utah was "forbidden"?}}

==Response to claim: 106 - Castration of a man by Bishop Warren Snow who was "engaged to a woman Snow wanted to take for a plural wife"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=
Castration of a man by Bishop Warren Snow who was "engaged to a woman Snow wanted to take for a plural wife."		
|authorsources=<br>
#{{CriticalWork:Bigler:Forgotten Kingdom|pages=132}}
}}
{{misinformation|The castration did occur, but not for the reason stated by the author.}}
{{:Question: Did Bishop Warren S. Snow forcibly castrate twenty-four-year-old Thomas Lewis?}}

==Response to claim: 106 - The author claims that the "bloody regime…ended with" Jedediah "Grant's sudden death, on December 1, 1856"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=
The author claims that the "bloody regime…ended with [Jedediah] Grant's sudden death, on December 1, 1856."		
|authorsources=<br>
#{{CriticalWork:Bigler:Forgotten Kingdom|pages=133}}
}}
{{misinformation|There is no evidence of Grant implementing "blood atonement."}}

==Response to claim: 108 - Surveyor General David Burr "fled for his life"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=
Surveyor General David Burr "fled for his life."
|authorsources=<br>
#House Exec. Doc. 71, 118-20.
}}
{{disinformation|Burr did not mention any threats against his life even in his official report to Congress.
}}
{{:Question: Was Surveyor General David H. Burr threatened with death by Mormons while he was in Utah?}}

==Response to claim: 110-112 - It is claimed that Parley P. Pratt was killed because he married Elenore McLean when she was not divorced from her husband==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=
It is claimed that Parley P. Pratt was killed because he married Elenore McLean when she was not divorced from her husband.
|authorsources=<br>
*Reva Stanley, ''The Archer of Paradise: A Biography of Parley Pratt'', 163.
*Steven Pratt, "Eleanor McLean," 227.
*Fielding, ''Unsolicited Chronicler'', 382.
}}
{{misinformation|Eleanor declared herself divorced from Hector, who had been abusing her.
}}
{{:Question: Was Parley P. Pratt murdered because he stole another man's wife?}}

==Response to claim: 112-113 - In Brigham's speech on July 24, 1857, he said that "This American Continent will be Zion..."==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=
In Brigham's speech on July 24, 1857, he said that "This American Continent will be Zion...for it is so spoken of by the Prophets." The author interprets this to mean that the "godless American government's moving against them signaled the beginning of their Armageddon scenario" and would result in Brigham's "ascendancy" to rule the Kingdom of God on earth.
|authorsources=<br>
#Fielding, ''Unsolicited Chronicler'', 383.
}}
{{misinformation|There was nothing anti-American or threatening in Brigham's speech.}}
{{:Question: Did Brigham Young indicate in a speech in 1857 that the American government would fall to the Mormons?}}

==Response to claim: 115 - The author claims that "Indian" massacres that occurred in Utah Territory were actually carried out by "white-faced Indians who used Mormon slang"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=
The author claims that "Indian" massacres that occurred in Utah Territory were actually carried out by "white-faced Indians who used Mormon slang."
|authorsources=<br>
#No source provided.
}}
{{propaganda|The author needs evidence beside her assertion to prove this point.}}

==Response to claim: 115 - Brigham instructed the people to "hoard their grain" and not sell to any gentiles==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=
Brigham instructed the people to "hoard their grain," according to the author. People were told to "report without delay any person in your District that disposes of a Kernel of grain to any Gentile merchant or temporary sojourner."
|authorsources=<br>
#Brooks, ''Mountain Meadows Massacre'', xvii-xviii.
}}
{{misinformation|Counsel and advice were given to the citizens not to sell grain to the emigrants to feed their stock, but to let them have sufficient for themselves if they were out.
}}
{{:Question: Did Brigham Young issue orders that no food or grain should be sold to "Gentiles" that were passing through Utah?}}

==Response to claim: 120 - The author claims that "it seem most likely that" Charles "Rich advised the Fancher train to take the Southern Trail"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=
The author claims that "it seem most likely that [Charles] Rich advised the Fancher train to take the Southern Trail."
|authorsources=<br>
#Author's opinion.
}}
{{misinformation|Jacob Hamblin would testify that the Fancher train "being of southern people had preferred to take the southern route." <ref>Jacob Hamblin statement in James Henry Carleton, ''Report on the Subject of the Massacre at the Mountain Meadows, in Utah Territory, in September, 1857 of One Hundred and Twenty Men, women and Children, Who Were from Arkansas'' (Little Rock, AR: True Democrat Steam press, 1860), 6; cited by {{MMM1|start=101}}</ref>
}}

==Response to claim: 121 - Will Bagley claims that "all information about the emigrants' conduct came from men involved in their murder or cover-up"==
{{IndexClaimItemShort
|title=American Massacre
|claim=
Will Bagley claims that "all information about the emigrants' conduct came from men involved in their murder or cover-up."
}}
{{misinformation|Junaita Brooks pointed out that accounts of provocation from the immigrants appeared within days as far away California, and from [[Blood_of_the_Prophets:_Brigham_Young_and_the_Massacre_at_Mountain_Meadows/Use_of_sources/Double_standards_of_skepticism||multiple sources]].
|authorsources=<br>
#{{CriticalWork:Bagley:Blood of the Prophets|pages=99}}
*{{CrossRef:Bagley:Blood of the Prophets|pages=99}}
}}
*{{Detail|Blood_of_the_Prophets:_Brigham_Young_and_the_Massacre_at_Mountain_Meadows/Use_of_sources/Double_standards_of_skepticism|l1=Double standard of skepticism}}

{{endnotes sources}}



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